Climate change
Exxon, Total and Shell are finally talking about climate change
Some of the most powerful forces of the modern world have this month entered into an engagement that puts international security at stake. “Throughout the 21st century, climate change impacts are projected to slow down economic growth, make poverty more difficult, further erode food security, and prolong existing and create new poverty traps.” So said the world’s leading authority on climate change, the United NationsIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its penultimate assessment report on 31 March. (altro…)
IPCC report: averting catastrophe is eminently affordable
Catastrophic climate change can be averted without sacrificing living standards according to a UN report, which concludes that the transformation required to a world of clean energy is eminently affordable.
“It doesn’t cost the world to save the planet,” said economist Professor Ottmar Edenhofer, who led the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) team. The cheapest and least risky route to dealing with global warming is to abandon all dirty fossil fuels in coming decades, the report found. Gas – including that from the global fracking boom – could be important during the transition, Edenhofer said, but only if it replaced coal burning. (altro…)
Commons committee warns of environmental impact of HS2
Tougher environmental safeguards should be imposed on HS2 to minimise irreplaceable damage, particularly to ancient woodland, and harmful impacts of the proposed north-south rail link, a parliamentary committee has recommended. HS2 Ltd should engage in much greater consultation and not resort to claiming that measures are not “practicable or reasonable” to “readily dismiss essential environmental protections”, the House of Commons environmental audit committee has said in a report published on Monday. (altro…)
Has climate change adaptation lost its way?
Poor farmers regrow trees on their land in the Sahel for food, animal fodder, fuel and crop protection. Communities threatened by rising seas on the Carteret atoll in Papua New Guinea move permanently to Bougainville, the country’s main island. The Netherlands devises coastal and river-flood protection schemes with a planning horizon of two centuries. Scientists collaborate to breed new varieties of drought-tolerant maize for Africa. (altro…)
Clima, rapporto WGII IPCC
Gli effetti del riscaldamento globale probabilmente sono “gravi e irreversibili”. È impietoso il giudizio dell’Ipcc (Panel Intergovernativo sul Cambiamento Climatico delle Nazioni Unite) nel rapporto diffuso oggi a Yokohama, Giappone, sullo stato di salute mondiale dell’ambiente. I dati confermano che il cambiamento climatico “è una realtà, sta avvenendo ora e sta colpendo le vite e il benessere di intere popolazioni così come quello di ecosistemi delicati alla base di importanti cicli vitali”. Basti pensare alle ondate di calore che hanno colpito l’Europa nel 2003, alle devastazioni prodotte dagli uragani negli Stati Uniti e agli incendi in varie parti del pianeta. (altro…)
IPCC report: climate change felt ‘on all continents and across the oceans’
has already left its mark “on all continents and across the oceans“, damaging food crops, spreading disease, and meltingglaciers, according to the leaked text of a blockbuster UN climate science report due out on Monday. Government officials and scientists are gathered in Yokohama this week to wrangle over every line of a summary of the report before the final wording is released on Monday – the first update in seven years. But governments have already signed off on the critical finding that climate change is already having an effect, and that even a small amount of warming in the future could lead to “abrupt and irreversible changes”, according to documents seen by the Guardian. (altro…)
Next Climate Panel Report on Global Warming Impacts
Scientists and diplomats are meeting in Yokohama, Japan, this week to hash out any final tweaks to the summary of the forthcoming Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on current and anticipated impacts of human-driven global warming on people and ecosystems. The final summary will be released on March 31. It’s worth waiting until then, given the tendency for advance leaks to be selectively torqued toward “it’s worse than we thought” or “no worries” themes. But there are interesting hints emerging amid the noise. (altro…)
Obama Turns to Web to Illustrate the Effects of a Changing Climate
President Obama wants Americans to see how climate change could deluge or destroy their own backyards — and to make it as easy as opening a web-based app. As part of an effort to make the public see global warming as a tangible and immediate problem, the White House on Wednesday inaugurated a website, climate.data.gov, aimed at turning scientific data about projected droughts and wildfires and the rise in sea levels into eye-catching digital presentations that can be mapped using simple software apps. The project is the brainchild of Mr. Obama’s counselor, John D. Podesta, and the White House science adviser, John P. Holdren. (altro…)
Climate change: we’ve put off the difficult decisions for too long
Climate change is rarely too far from the headlines, whether it is in connection with the ongoing debate about how we meet our energy needs or discussion of the prevailing weather – the latter being one of our defining national pastimes. But the headlines do not always represent an accurate picture of what we know about climate science, instead focusing more on those who either want to ignore the evidence and carry on as we are, or those who predict extreme catastrophe. Fortunately, in the UK we generally take science seriously. The latest polling data released by the government shows that a large majority of people in the UK realise that climate scientists have shown that greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide – released in the burning of fossil fuels – trap heat in our atmosphere and warm the earth. (altro…)
Cambiamenti climatici, la percezione degli europei
di Carlo Carraro
L’Eurobarometro ha pubblicato la scorsa settimana un sondaggio speciale che indaga la percezione degli europei nei confronti del tema dei cambiamenti climatici. Il rapporto, che segue le indagini condotte allo stesso scopo nel 2008, 2009 e 2011, è stato prodotto grazie alle interviste fatte a 27.919 rispondenti di diversi gruppi sociodemografici, distribuiti nei 28 Paesi Membri dell’Unione Europea. Gli intervistati sono stati invitati a svelare la loro percezione del problema dei cambiamenti climatici e la loro opinione sulle responsabilità nell’affrontarli, ad indicare le azioni da loro messe in atto quotidianamente per combatterli e a comunicare le loro idee riguardo al ruolo delle istituzioni pubbliche nel campo della mitigazione. (altro…)